MONTREAL - Victims of current catastrophes in Canada could spend years battling the painful, psychological effects of losing their wordly possessions, according to post-disaster research.

Mental health experts warn that the aftermath of natural disasters — like major floods and fires — can inflict deep, long-lasting psychological injuries for victims.

A researcher, who studied the effects of the devastating 1996 floods in Quebec's Saguenay region, said other stressors begin to sink in once the initial shockwaves of a catastrophe have passed.

Danielle Maltais said victims will shift their focus to concerns like lost personal items, financial worries and determining where they will live next.

"These people will find themselves all alone with their grief, with the clean-up they have to do, with the different stressors that they will have to overcome," Maltais, a professor at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, said Wednesday.

"This is also a period that is quite conducive to developing health problems."

Those problems, she added, can include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. These psychological wounds can eventually lead to physical consequences, like insomnia, heart disease and excessive weight gain or loss.

Thousands of people have been forced from their homes this spring following record-breaking floods in Manitoba and Quebec, where waters continued to rise Wednesday.

Earlier this week, wildfires also reduced a huge swath of the Albertan community of Slave Lake to ash, leaving many citizens homeless.

Maltais co-authored several studies on people affected by the July 1996 flash floods that struck the Saguenay River valley — an event that caused at least 10 deaths and forced more than 15,000 from their homes.

The research compared the lives of victims with non-victims in the region at different intervals over several years following the floods.

She said the study found that 75 per cent of the people deeply affected by the floods developed new health problems, or saw existing ones get worse.

Maltais recalled that significant psychological problems still existed among the victims eight years later.

Another expert noted how studies have shown that residual psychological effects can persist for 15 years after a natural catastrophe.

"Clearly, they're not as intense, and maybe they don't have the same number of symptoms they had at the beginning, but it's not unheard of that these kinds of events can have a long-term effect on people," said Michael Ellery, a psychology professor at the University of Manitoba.